On July 3, 2015, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of a river of smoke passing over the Greenland Sea. The smoke most likely arose from fires in Canada and Alaska. Smoke was also reported to have crossed the North Pole by July 12. The 2015 wildfire season in the Arctic has been very intense – and very smoky.

Hope you are all planning or in the middle of your summer vacations.

This is the week that was in Smart Energy News.

Walmart and Others ask PSC permission to opt out of Utility Energy Efficiency Commitment: Walmart says it can implement the same programs without utility involvement and at lower cost.

Utilities claim this will penalize other users by increasing their cost

Florida PSC Cost Recovery Opt-Out Hearing; (Utility News)

Oil/Gas delivery and processing are major issues:

California deals with crude oil delivery system: Processes over 1.6 million barrels per day of crude oil at 15 refineries

Expanding America's pipeline infrastructure would relieve the nation's overburdened freight rail network: The booming energy business in the Upper Midwest spiked rail congestion and freight costs for farmers in the region and cut their profits by $570 million during the 2014 harvest

Several pipeline projects are in process or have been approved in California